Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-05-30
A Night With a Mailman.
AN ENGINEERS FEARFUL RIDE IN THE
CAB OF A LOCOMOTIVE.

Locomotive engineers, as general rule,
would rather do anything else than "talk
shop" However, they do sometimes I'M
timber their reluctant tongues, and when
they do their talk is usually full of pith
and moment. A small party of friends
found this out when they got George Trai
nor, small, wiry, grav-haired engineer
from Illinois, talking about mis- experien-
ces.
1T has been some years now since
have had real. genuine hair raising scare
on the foot board" said Mr. Trainor. "Ot
course, | have been startled dozens of
times ard frightened once or twice. when
saw was going into creek, or plung
ing into a gravel train. But | haven't
felt my heart sink right down into my
boots and my cap rise right up off my head
for ten years. The last time was enough
to last me for the rest OF my lite. too. |
was running on the Lake Shore road then.
from Cleveland to Chicago. ! had taken
job firing with a big, brawny. six-footed
man on the throttle named Tom Apple.
gate. The third trip made with Tom, we
were to take the fast mail from Cleveland
to Chicago. We had No. 6l7, the biggest
and newest machine on the road and ter
ror for speed. We pulled out of Cleve-
land on time, at 1918, on the darkest and
gloomiest night l ever saw, with
four big mail and baggage cars and five
coaches and seepers. 1t was late in the
fall, and the weather had been rainy for
some time. That night il poured down in
steady flood, and the darkness was so in
tense you couldn't distinguish an object a
foot from your nose. l noticed thai Tom
was unnaturally silent and seemed anxious
and nervous, which was natural enough.
for the rains had softeued Inc ground ami
overlooked the streams ard it was prett,
dangerous going. We logged along
steadily at forty-f five or fifty miles an hou1
without exchanging word, Tom watch
ing the track closely all the time. All of
sudden he jumped from his seat, opened
the furnace door and gazed intently for
two or three minutes in At the fire. then
he looked up at me and said spitefully:
So that's so, is it,"
81 looked at him in speechless amaze
ment. The glare # the furnace fell on
his tace, which was horribly distorted. and
his ewes glared at me not al all like Tom
Applegate.
$50 that's so. is iiP' he roared again.
II thought he was drunk. SO. TO mum
him, said. trying To laugh:
"'Oh. yes, that's so, Tom, that's So
"'Well. them said he. make up thai
fire there and be quick about it,
Il knew that the hre didn't need anv
making up, but didn dare TO say so and
began throwing in the coal The steam
gauge began to g. up. In a moment or
two more, Tom got up ard hung the
sledge hammer on the safety valve. Then
the horrible thought came into my head
that Tom was crazy. No merely drunken
engineer would ever do that, no matter
how drunk he might be. Every few
minutes Tom would get up and gaze into
the furnace again and SAY
"'Why don't you throw some coal in
therep Don't you see she's freezing to
DEATH Throw some coal in there or I'll
throw you in to feed the flames
"All the time we were going faster and
faster. and Tom now pulled her wide
open. The engine shot forward with a
wild plunge and away we went, lurching
from side to side over the uneven tracks
like drunken man. flying around curves.
dashing headlong over bridges. down
grades aud past stations with fighttul We